Solid State Logic Showcases Gravity Media Production Management System at NAB 2008

Solid State Logic, the world’s leading manufacturer of analog and digital audio consoles and provider of creative tools for film, audio, video and broadcast professionals, will showcase the Gravity Media Production Management System at NAB 2008, April 14-17, at the Las Vegas Convention Center (booth #N4031). This next generation of collaborative production editing and media management is ready for prime time offering superior speed while addressing multiple formats.

“When news breaks from a war zone, a weather event or a political contest, the news organizations are galvanized into competitive action involving literally hundreds of people world wide,” says Jerry Berger, Vice President Sales for Solid State Logic. “Gravity is designed to handle the flood of video and audio information with dispatch to get the word out to the public. Gravity addresses the challenging format issues facing news organizations like video from a cell phone in Iraq in one report, to HD video on the campaign trail for another report, to home SD video taken during a tornado and submitted over the internet. We believe that the Gravity system will have a significant impact on news production workflow by providing a unified system that is both agile and comprehensive in its feature set.”

Engineered from the ground up for speed and flexibility, Gravity changes the workflow paradigm of the news production industry by providing a high-speed network capable of handling a virtual blizzard of information in a renderless, distributed environment. Key features of the system include HD and SD editing with effects on the same time-line, proxy editing while recording and the capability of generating multiple, simultaneous output formats in different resolutions to cover any broadcasting situation.

The Gravity system allows for bi-directional metadata exchange, auto-selectable proxy data rates to accommodate differing satellite installations and assignable user security to maintain system integrity. All components of the Gravity system are user configurable to fit specific installations, while workflow needs are customizable to accommodate any mode of operation.

The Gravity system is based around eight key features:

• The Asset Manager provides an overview of the entire system and control of the media processes where users can monitor the flow of media via the ingest encoders, viewing multiple motion video windows per instance and access a comprehensive suite of content management tools such as the Scheduler, Media Manager, System Monitor and Metadata management segments of Gravity.

• The Scheduler provides a streamlined graphical interface for controlling Encodes and Decodes on a user defined series of timed events presented on a clear graphical timeline.

• The Encoder and Decoder provides for multiple simultaneous streams of source content at three data rates, depending on system demands, while allowing users to install encoders and decoders at remote locations that automatically acquire and distribute video and audio content to central content servers where it is immediately available for use.

• The Gravity Package Production Tool (PPT) is a user friendly, feature laden video editor designed for fast paced environments such as breaking news. The customizable GUI layout provides mixed format timeline video and audio editing with a comprehensive set of editing, browse, search and monitoring tools simultaneously addressing HD/SD, 4:3/16:9 content. Format information is tracked per clip that provides the transcoder with the correct sizing information for aspect ratio conversion upon completion.

• The Gravity Data Server is based on standard SQL relational database technology to store and retrieve metadata including user metadata such as object ID, story name, bookmark information and media metadata such as file name, size, location, codecs, aspect ratio and frame rate. The Data Server is fully Media Object Server (MOS) compliant in an XML environment.

• The Gravity Studio Monitor provides a fully configurable monitoring station with a clear visual overview of system activity. It allows the user to monitor multiple devices such as encoders and decoders with audio levels on a single screen.

• The Gravity Web Client is a scaled down version of the Gravity Asset Manager and PPT that runs within a standard web browser. The Web Client enables remote system access from literally any location using a standard PC with a high-speed Internet connection enabling remote system access while providing the functionality a user needs to get a story to air.

Solid State Logic is the world’s leading manufacturer of analogue and digital audio consoles and provider of creative tools for music, broadcast and post production professionals. For more information about our award-winning products, please visit:www.solid-state-logic.com